This application claims the benefit of the Korean Application No. P2002-43603 filed on Jul. 24, 2002, which is hereby incorporated by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a built-in refrigerator.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Generally, the refrigerator is an apparatus used for taking storage of foods freshly for a long-term period, and is generally divided into the main body with the food storage room and the machine room for taking storage of foods in frozen and cold storage states, and a cooling cycle for cooling the food storage room.
Here, the main component of the cooling cycle includes the compressor, the condenser, the evaporator and the expansion valve. Generally, the compressor and the condenser are installed within the machine room equipped at the rear lower side of the main body, and the evaporator and the expansion valve are installed adjacent to the food storage room. The food storage room of the main body is cooled through the following sequence.
First, the compressor is driven by the electromotor to compress coolant in gas state and to transfer the compressed coolant to the condenser, and the coolant of the condenser is liquefied by blowing air using the cooling fan. The flow rate of the coolant in liquid state is adjusted at the expansion valve and thus the coolant rapidly expands and is evaporated with being injected into the evaporator. At this time, the coolant absorbs heat from the periphery of the evaporator to thereby cool the food storage room. The coolant in gas state returns to the compressor, is compressed at the compressor to be converted into the liquid state, and again repeats the aforementioned condensation, expansion, evaporation, and compression cycles.
Meanwhile, since the above-constituted refrigerator is generally installed at one sidewall of kitchen or living room, it is protruded by its size from the wall to badly affect on beauty on appearance, and there is also caused a drawback in that practical space use is lowered.
To this end, in these days, there is being requested the development of the built-in refrigerator which a part of the body thereof enters into the wall in or can be installed at the sink. Among these built-in refrigerators, there is being more strongly requested the built-in refrigerator which is installed at the sink which provides a convenience of use upon cooking of foods and is the most preferred space by housewives.
Then, in case a refrigerator is installed in the sink, air flow is blocked owing to the characteristic of the built-in refrigerator, so that there is focused a radiation technology for effectively radiating the heat generated from the condenser and the compressor installed within the machine room provided at the rear lower side of the main body.
Accordingly, the present invention is directed to a built-in refrigerator that substantially obviates one or more problems due to limitations and disadvantages of the related art.
An object of the present invention is to provide a built-in refrigerator, which can be installed at a sink to enhance practical space use of a kitchen or a living room and to enhance the beauty on appearance.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a built-in refrigerator with a superior radiation performance of the machine room.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a built-in refrigerator in which there is no need of installation of a hot line for eliminating condensed water forming on the periphery of the door and thus fabrication costs are very low.
Additional advantages, objects, and features of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and in part will become apparent to those having ordinary skill in the art upon examination of the following or may be learned from practice of the invention. The objectives and other advantages of the invention may be realized and attained by the structure particularly pointed out in the written description and claims hereof as well as the appended drawings.
To achieve these objects and other advantages and in accordance with the purpose of the invention, as embodied and broadly described herein, a built-in refrigerator includes: a main body installed in a sink and having a door at a front side thereof and a machine room at a rear lower side thereof; condenser and compressor respectively installed in the machine room; a cooling fan installed in the machine room, for cooling the condenser and the compressor; and a radiation passage allowing an outside of a front side of the main body to communicate with the machine room to introduce external air into the machine room and discharge internal air of the machine room.
Here, it is preferable that the condenser and the compressor are respectively installed at both sides of the machine room, and the cooling fan is one pair installed at a center of the machine room to face with each other. The respective cooling fans may be axially coupled to different motors, or be axially coupled to both sides of a single motor.
It is preferable that the radiation passage is formed by securing a spacing between a lower side of the main body and an indoor bottom face, and the built-in refrigerator further includes a dividing strip which divides the radiation passage into an inflow passage through which external air is introduced and an outflow passage through which internal air is discharged. Here, the dividing trip is installed such that the inflow passage is formed at a center of the radiation passage and the outflow passage is formed at both sides of the inflow passage. More preferably, the dividing strip is installed such that the inflow passage is located between introducing sides of the cooling fan and the outflow passage is located at a discharging side of the cooling fan. Further, the outflow passage is formed extending to a lower side of a periphery of the door of the main body.
Also, the built-in refrigerator further includes a floorcloth stay on the bottom of the indoor room located at a front lower side of the main body. Here, it is preferable that a predetermined spacing secured between an upper side of the floorcloth stay and the lower side of the main body forms a part of the radiation passage, and the floorcloth stay is formed integrally to be connected with a floorcloth stay of other portion of the sink
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description of the present invention are exemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed.